"The longer you put off talking to your colleagues, the more likely it is, that you're going to have integration problems", says Jim Benson in his conversation with Tomasz Wykowski.

They start their conversation with The Collaboration Equation, which is "Individuals x Teams = Value. Jim explains that teams are covered by the Agile movement, and Value is discussed in Lean, but the individuals are somehow forgotten - the way they interact, work with each other, help each other, monitor their work, and are self-aware of what they lend to the team and what they gain from it.

Jim defines professionals as people wanting to do the right thing at the right time and wanting to do it better next time. He shows how Value Stream Mapping can help them improve by visualizing their work, pain points, emotions, and confusion. The moment they understand how they cause problems to others they can create their own reasons to collaborate and define the right environment to work as professionals.

You can learn more about Jim and his services at:

• https://modusinstitute.com
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimbenson/
• https://moduscooperandi.com/

Jim's four books:

• The Collaborative Equation https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BHXDBG25/
• Why limit WIP https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KRJFS2Y/
• Why Plans Fail https://www.amazon.com//dp/B006S3UHGA/
• Personal Kanban https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004R1Q642/

Two other books mentioned by Jim during the conversation:

• Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi https://www.amazon.com//dp/0061339202
• Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374533555
• This interview was recorded during ACE! Conference (https://aceconf.com) in Krakow, Poland with support from Pragmatic Talks (https://www.pragmaticcoders.com/resources/pragmatic-talks)

Jim's talk from ACE! Conference 2024: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3OfAzt4V-M.